Sludge degradation and microbial community structures analysis in a microbial electrolysis cell-coupled up flow anaerobic blanket reactor with an ultrasound treatment system.

This study proposed a sludge degradation system comprised of: (i) an ultrasound treatment (UT) system to disintegrate sludge; (ii) an up flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor to degrade the disintegrated sludge; and (iii) a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) in replacement of a three-phase UASB separator to deeply degrade the disintegrated sludge. The influence of the ultrasound power, the temperature, and the voltage on the sludge degradation process was discussed. The experimental results showed that the UT unit effectively promoted sludge disintegration, thereby leading to deterioration of the quality of the reactor effluent.

Islr regulates canonical Wnt signaling-mediated skeletal muscle regeneration by stabilizing Dishevelled-2 and preventing autophagy.

Satellite cells are crucial for skeletal muscle regeneration, but the molecular mechanisms regulating satellite cells are not entirely understood. Here, we show that the immunoglobulin superfamily containing leucine-rich repeat (Islr), a newly identified marker for mesenchymal stem cells, stabilizes canonical Wnt signaling and promote skeletal muscle regeneration. Loss of Islr delays skeletal muscle regeneration in adult mice.

High tolerance against chirp induced distortions in PAM4-based digital mobile fronthaul by sample bits interleaving.

Directly modulated lasers (DMLs) and electro-absorption modulated lasers (EMLs) are key transmitter options in future short-haul networks. However, both of them suffer from frequency chirp, which incurs nonlinear distortions, especially to high order modulation signals. In this paper, we investigate their application in PAM4-based digital mobile fronthaul and propose a scheme to remarkably improve the fidelity of radio signal.

Impact of SOA-induced pattern effect on the filter requirements in vestigial sideband direct detected PAM4 transmission.

In an optical filter based VSB-DD transmission system, semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is a promising option to enhance system optical power margin. While, in practical system, the low input saturation power makes the SOA-amplified signal susceptible to the pattern effect, which causes a considerable spectral broadening, thereby influencing the design of VSB filter. In this paper, the relationship between SOA-induced pattern effect and the requirements of the VSB filter is systematically investigated.

Design and analysis of high-speed optical access networks in the O-band with DSP-free ONUs and low-bandwidth optics.

In this paper, we demonstrate and investigate high-speed passive optical networks (PON) in the O-band without using any digital signal processing (DSP) at the ONU side, meanwhile still adopting cost-effective low-bandwidth optics. We show that with commercial 10G-class optics including DML and PIN-TIA, 50Gb/s PAM4 PON with a power budget up to 29dB is achieved under the HD-FEC BER limit. We present the detailed design procedure of the DSP including the downlink Nyquist pulse shaping and pre-equalization and uplink post-equalization, and conduct a comprehensive study on this system including DSP complexity, DAC/ADC sampling rate requirement and tolerance to the response diversity of ONU receivers.

Effect of stress on corrosion of high-purity magnesium in vitro and in vivo.

Magnesium-based implants are subjected to complicated stresses during implantation in the human body. The stress effects on corrosion of magnesium (Mg) in vitro were investigated in previous studies, whereas in this study, the corrosion behaviors of high-purity (HP) Mg under stress were comparatively studied in vitro in Hank's solution and in vivo in the subcutaneous environment of rats. Loading devices were designed to apply compressive stress (15.

Quantitative proteomics reveal antidepressant potential protein targets of xiaochaihutang in corticosterone induced model of depression.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Xiaochaihutang (XCHT), one of famous Chinese herbal prescription for treating Shaoyang symptom, has been used successfully in depressive disorders for many years. Our laboratory has demonstrated that XCHT remarkably alleviated various depressive behaviors induced by several depressive animal models, but previous studies only focused on one or several protein targets, lacked dynamic change and interrelation of proteins. Therefore, potential protein targets and mechanisms are required further systematic investigation.

Parasympathectomy increases resting secretion of the submandibular gland in minipigs in the long term.

Parasympathectomy leads to retrogressive alteration and dysfunction of the submandibular gland (SMG) within 1 month, but its long-term effect is unclear. Excessive secretion is observed in half of the patients 4-6 months after SMG transplantation, which completely denervates the gland. Here, we investigated the long-term effect of parasympathectomy on the secretion of SMGs in minipigs.

Genome-Wide Investigation of Genes Regulated by ERα in Breast Cancer Cells.

Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), which has been detected in over 70% of breast cancer cases, is a driving factor for breast cancer growth. For investigating the underlying genes and networks regulated by ERα in breast cancer, RNA-seq was performed between ERα transgenic MDA-MB-231 cells and wild type MDA-MB-231 cells. A total of 267 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified.

Exogenous H2S Inhibits Autophagy in Unilateral Ureteral Obstruction Mouse Renal Tubule Cells by Regulating the ROS-AMPK Signaling Pathway.

Background/aims: The induction of excessive autophagy by increased levels of oxidative stress is one of the main mechanisms underlying unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO)-induced vascular endothelial cell dysfunction. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been shown to have an anti-oxidative effect, but its mode of action on excessive autophagy in vascular endothelial cells is unclear.

Methods: Surgery was used to induce UUO in male C57BL/6 mice as an in vivo model.

Epicardial adipose tissue volume is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular risk factors in the general population.

Background: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is considered an important source of bioactive molecules that can influence coronary arteries directly and is related to the concurrent presence of both obstructive coronary stenosis and myocardial ischemia independently. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become an emergent health problem worldwide.

Aim: This cross-sectional study aimed to address the relationship between the volume of EAT and NAFLD and other cardiovascular risk factors in the general population.

Self-Assembled Fluorescent Organic Nanomaterials for Biomedical Imaging.

Fluorescent nanomaterials, self-assembled from building blocks through multiple intermolecular interactions show diversified structures and functionalities, and are potential fluorescence contrast agents/probes for high-performance biomedical imaging. Self-assembled nanomaterials exhibit high stability, long circulation time, and targeted biological distribution. This review summarizes recent advances of self-assembled nanomaterials as fluorescence contrast agents/probes for biomedical imaging.

Experimental study of performance enhanced IM/DD transmissions based on constellation switching.

In this work, we experimentally investigate the performance improvement in IM/DD systems using constellation switching (CS), which is simple to implement with a reasonably low complexity. By encoding extra bits on the selection of a PAM constellation pattern from a set of constellations, a lower symbol rate can be used to achieve the same system bit rate compared with standard PAM systems based on a single constellation pattern. In our experiments with bandwidth limited components, including a 14 GHz bandwidth digital-to-analog converter (DAC), we demonstrate that the CS signals can improve the receiver sensitivity.

Quantitative detection of hepatitis C virus RNA in urine of patients with chronic hepatitis C using a novel real-time PCR assay.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA can be detected in body fluids such as urine. However, because of deficiencies in established isolation and detection methods, the actual prevalence and form of HCV RNA in the urine of patients with hepatitis C remain unclear. To more sensitively and accurately measure urine HCV RNA levels, a novel real-time PCR assay with a modified isolation method and short amplicon designed for short HCV RNA fragments was developed in this study.

The protective and anti-inflammatory effects of a modified glucagon-like peptide-2 dimer in inflammatory bowel disease.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, recurrent, and remitting inflammatory disease resulting from immune dysregulation in the gut. As a clinically frequent disease, it can affect individuals throughout their lives, with multiple complications. Glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP-2) is a potent epithelium-specific intestinal growth factor.

Association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and subclinical atherosclerosis: a cross-sectional study on population over 40 years old.

Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) refers to fatty infiltration of liver in the absence of excessive alcohol abuse. However, the problem that whether NAFLD is correlated with subclinical atherosclerosis assessed by carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (ba-PWV) remains a source of controversy. This can be attributed to the differences in diagnosis methods, population ethnicity, sampling size and bias.

Acupuncture Alleviates Rheumatoid Arthritis by Immune-Network Modulation.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic autoimmune inflammatory and debilitating disease that involves the systemic imbalance of the immune network. Previous studies have shown that acupuncture can help treat RA. However, its specific mechanisms are not fully understood.

Inactivation of by Aqueous Ozone.

contamination causes serious foodborne illness and has become a global health problem. As a disinfectant, aqueous ozone can effectively kill a number of bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other microorganisms. In this study, three factors, namely, the aqueous ozone concentration, the exposure time, and the bacterial density, were analyzed by response surface methodology, and the aqueous ozone concentration was the most influential factor in the sterilization ratio.

FOXP3 inhibits angiogenesis by downregulating VEGF in breast cancer.

Forkhead box P3 (FOXP3), an X-linked tumor suppressor gene, plays an important role in breast cancer. However, the biological functions of FOXP3 in breast cancer angiogenesis remain unclear. Here we found that the clinical expression of nuclear FOXP3 was inversely correlated with breast cancer angiogenesis.

Free triiodothyronine level correlates with statin responsiveness in acute myocardial infarction.

Background: Although thyroid hormone (TH) has important effects on lipid metabolism, the relationship between TH and statin responsiveness has never been investigated. We hypothesize that TH plays an important role in statin responsiveness in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Methods: Consecutive 1091 hospitalized AMI patients in Fuwai hospital (Beijing, China) were enrolled into this current study.

Expression patterns of tight junction proteins in porcine major salivary glands: a comparison study with human and murine glands.

Tight junction (TJ) proteins play a dynamic role in paracellular fluid transport in salivary gland epithelia. Most TJ studies are carried out in mice and rats. However, the morphology of rodent salivary glands differs from that of human glands.

A Single Codon Optimization Enhances Recombinant Human TNF- Vaccine Expression in .

As a proinflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-) plays a pivotal role in various autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Thus, TNF- has been defined as a therapeutic target for RA. Although some TNF- antagonists including neutralizing monoclonal antibodies and soluble receptors have been approved to be successful in attenuating symptoms in patients suffering from RA, the long-term use of these passive immunization reagents could cause some problems like a variable degree of immunogenicity.

Applying Statistical and Complex Network Methods to Explore the Key Signaling Molecules of Acupuncture Regulating Neuroendocrine-Immune Network.

The mechanisms of acupuncture are still unclear. In order to reveal the regulatory effect of manual acupuncture (MA) on the neuroendocrine-immune (NEI) network and identify the key signaling molecules during MA modulating NEI network, we used a rat complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) model to observe the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect of MA, and, what is more, we used statistical and complex network methods to analyze the data about the expression of 55 common signaling molecules of NEI network in ST36 (Zusanli) acupoint, and serum and hind foot pad tissue. The results indicate that MA had significant analgesic, anti-inflammatory effects on CFA rats; the key signaling molecules may play a key role during MA regulating NEI network, but further research is needed.

Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-Induced Protein 1 Targets Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1α to Protect Against Hepatic Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury.

Sterile inflammation is an essential factor causing hepatic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. As a critical regulator of inflammation, the role of monocyte chemoattractant protein-induced protein 1 (MCPIP1) in hepatic I/R injury remains undetermined. In this study, we discovered that MCPIP1 downregulation was associated with hepatic I/R injury in liver transplant patients and a mouse model.

Caspase Recruitment Domain Protein 6 Protects Against Hepatic Steatosis and Insulin Resistance by Suppressing Apoptosis Signal-Regulating Kinase 1.

The rapidly increasing prevalence of metabolic disorders associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) warrants further study of the underlying mechanisms to identify key regulators as targets for the development of therapeutic interventions. Caspase recruitment domain protein 6 (Card6), as a member of the CARD family that regulates cell death and immunity, may potentially control this process. Indeed, Card6 down-regulation was found to be closely associated with the fatty livers observed in NAFLD patients, obese mice, and a palmitate-treated hepatocyte model.